Lake Erie lawmakers say time to act is now

Saturday

Aug 9, 2014 at 12:01 AMAug 9, 2014 at 9:20 AM

State lawmakers who represent people along the Lake Erie shore called yesterday for stronger regulations on the farming industry to reduce the type of runoff that led to poisoned drinking water for 500,000 people in Toledo last weekend.

Laura Arenschield, The Columbus Dispatch

State lawmakers who represent people along the Lake Erie shore called yesterday for stronger regulations on the farming industry to reduce the type of runoff that led to poisoned drinking water for 500,000 people in Toledo last weekend.

The legislators said that scientists have researched algae blooms for decades and that it is time to solve the problem.

Scientists say reducing phosphorus is key. Phosphorus in the Maumee watershed predominantly comes from manure and chemical fertilizers that run off farm fields. Combined sewer systems that overflow during heavy rain and lawn fertilizers that run off into watersheds also contribute.

“We don’t need to study it any further,” said Rep. Teresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat. “We have the solutions. We need to implement those studies.”

Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a law asking farmers to get certified before they apply chemical fertilizer to their land. The program is voluntary; farmers won’t be required to participate until 2017.

The law does not regulate manure, which contributes to phosphorus in watersheds, and does not set limits for the amount of phosphorus that can enter the waterways.

State Sen. Edna Brown, D-Toledo, announced this week that she planned to introduce a bill to regulate manure on fields. It also would require farmers to participate in the certification program sooner.

Fedor said the state should declare that the Maumee watershed is “in distress,” a designation that would allow the state to limit the amount of fertilizer and manure that area farmers spread on their fields.

The state did that in 2011 for Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio. That lake has been plagued with toxic algae for years.

State Rep. Mike Sheehy, an Oregon Democrat, said he plans to introduce a bill next week that would make it illegal for farmers to spread manure on fields that are frozen or covered by snow.

Scientists say the manure can’t be absorbed into the soil and flows off those fields during spring rains and into streams and eventually the Maumee River, adding phosphorus to the water that ultimately flows to Lake Erie.

Cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, are common in most Ohio lakes. They grow thick by feeding on phosphorus from manure, fertilizer and sewage that rain washes from farm fields and treatment plants into nearby streams.

As many as 19 public lakes, including central Ohio’s Buckeye Lake, have been tainted in recent years by toxic algae.

Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, said in an email yesterday that since Kasich took office in 2011, the state has spent almost $470 million on programs to clean up Lake Erie.

Despite that spending, state and federal experts predicted this month that Lake Erie will experience significant toxic algae this summer.

In 2011, an enormous bloom stretched 1,600 square miles from Toledo to Cleveland.

“We all share in the cause of this problem,” Sheehy said. “The problem is long-standing, long-developing, and no one person is totally responsible.”

State Rep. Chris Redfern, a Catawba Island Democrat and co-chairman of the legislature’s Lake Erie Caucus, said that scientists nationwide have been studying algae blooms for years.

The Ohio Sea Grant College Program and Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory operate a lab on Lake Erie where scientists study algae. Heidelberg University’s National Center for Water Quality Research monitors phosphorus loads in Ohio’s rivers and streams.

“More must and should be done to protect our drinking waters,” Redfern said.